Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Dryer”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Density and white light brightness in looplike coronal mass ejections - Temporal evolution

Three ambient coronal models suitable for studies of time-dependent phenomena were used to investigate the propagation of coronal mass ejections initiated in each atmosphere by an identical energy source. These models included those of a static corona with a dipole magnetic field, developed by Dryer et al. (1979); a steady polytropic corona with an equatorial coronal streamer, developed by Steinolfson et al. (1982); and Steinolfson's (1988) model of heated corona with an equatorial coronal streamer. The results indicated that the first model does not adequately represent the general characteristics of observed looplike mass ejections, and the second model simulated only some of the observed features. Only the third model, which included a heating term and a streamer, was found to yield accurate simulation of the mess ejection observations.

Steinolfson, R. S.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Space station gas compressor technology study program, phase 1

The objectives were to identify the space station waste gases and their characteristics, and to investigate compressor and dryer types, as well as transport and storage requirements with tradeoffs leading to a preliminary system definition.

Hafele, B. W.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Critical evaluation of Jet-A spray combustion using propane chemical kinetics in gas turbine combustion simulated by KIVA-2

Jet-A spray combustion has been evaluated in gas turbine combustion with the use of propane chemical kinetics as the first approximation for the chemical reactions. Here, the numerical solutions are obtained by using the KIVA-2 computer code. The KIVA-2 code is the most developed of the available multidimensional combustion computer programs for application of the in-cylinder combustion dynamics of internal combustion engines. The released version of KIVA-2 assumes that 12 chemical species are present; the code uses an Arrhenius kinetic-controlled combustion model governed by a four-step global chemical reaction and six equilibrium reactions. Researchers efforts involve the addition of Jet-A thermophysical properties and the implementation of detailed reaction mechanisms for propane oxidation. Three different detailed reaction mechanism models are considered. The first model consists of 131 reactions and 45 species. This is considered as the full mechanism which is developed through the study of chemical kinetics of propane combustion in an enclosed chamber. The full mechanism is evaluated by comparing calculated ignition delay times with available shock tube data. However, these detailed reactions occupy too much computer memory and CPU time for the computation. Therefore, it only serves as a benchmark case by which to evaluate other simplified models. Two possible simplified models were tested in the existing computer code KIVA-2 for the same conditions as used with the full mechanism. One model is obtained through a sensitivity analysis using LSENS, the general kinetics and sensitivity analysis program code of D. A. Bittker and K. Radhakrishnan. This model consists of 45 chemical reactions and 27 species. The other model is based on the work published by C. K. Westbrook and F. L. Dryer.

Nguyen, H. L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Design and operation of the U.S. Space Station Freedom Propulsion System

The propulsion functions for the U.S. Space Station Freedom (SSF) are accomplished by two separate systems, the Primary Propulsion System and the Supplemental Reboost System (SRS). The Primary Propulsion System includes self-contained hydrazine modules for station reboost, attitude control and contingency maneuvers. These Propulsion Modules contain reboost and attitude control thrusters, propellant storage, thermal conditioning and electronic controls. The modules are serviced on the ground and launched on the Space Shuttle as replacements for the on-orbit modules which have expended their propellant. The expended modules are returned to the ground for reservicing and subsequent reuse. The Supplemental Reboost System includes a Waste Gas Assembly and Resistojet Modules which are used for reboost maneuvers only. The Waste Gas Assembly contains waste gas storage, compressors and dryers and the Resistojet Modules contain multipropellant resistojet thrusters, electronic pressure regulators and power conditioning equipment.

Morano, Joseph S.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Studies of droplet burning and extinction

A project on droplet combustion, pursued jointly with F.L. Dryer of Princeton University, has now been in progress for many years. The project involves experiments on the burning of single droplets in various atmospheres, mainly at normal atmosperic pressure and below, performed in drop towers and designed to be performed aboard space-based platforms such as the Space Shuttle or the Space Station. It also involves numerical computations on droplet burning, performed mainly at Princeton, and asymptotic analyses of droplet burning, performed mainly at UCSD. The focus of the studies rests primarily on time-dependent droplet-burning characteristics and on extinction phenomena. The presentation to be given here concerns the recent research on application of asymptotic methods to investigation of the flame structure and extinction of hydrocarbon droplets. These theoretical studies are investigating the extent to which combustion of higher hydrocarbons - heptane, in particular - can be described by four-step reduced chemistry of the kind that has achieved a good degree of success for methane flames. The studies have progressed to a point at which a number of definite conclusions can now be stated. These conclusions and the reasoning that led to them are outlined here.

Williams, Forman A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Meteorological overview of the Arctic Boundary Layer Expedition (ABLE 3A) flight series

A meteorological overview of the Arctic Boundary Layer Expedition (ABLE 3A) flight series is presented. Synoptic analyses of mid-tropospheric circulation patterns are combined with isentropic back trajectory calculations to describe the long-range (400-3000 km) atmospheric transport mechanisms and pathways of air masses to the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America during July and August 1988. Siberia and the northern Pacific Ocean were found to be the two most likely source areas for 3-day transport to the study areas in Alaska. Transport to the Barrow region was frequently influenced by polar vortices and associated short-wave troughs over the Arctic Ocean, while the Bethel area was most often affected by lows migrating across the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, as well as ridges of high pressure which built into interior Alaska. July 1988 was warmer and dryer than normal over much of Alaska. As a result, the 1988 Alaska fire season was one of the most active of the past decade. Airborne lidar measurements verified the presence of biomass burning plumes on many flights, often trapped in thin subsidence layer temperature inversions. Several cases of stratosphere/troposphere exchange were noted, based upon potential vorticity analyses and aircraft lidar data, especially in the Barrow region and during transit flights to and from Alaska.

Shipham, Mark C.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Numerical simulations of the superdetonative ram accelerator combusting flow field

The effects of projectile canting and fins on the ram accelerator combusting flowfield and the possible cause of the ram accelerator unstart are investigated by performing axisymmetric, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional calculations. Calculations are performed using the INCA code for solving Navier-Stokes equations and a guasi-global combustion model of Westbrook and Dryer (1981, 1984), which includes N2 and nine reacting species (CH4, CO, CO2, H2, H, O2, O, OH, and H2O), which are allowed to undergo a 12-step reaction. It is found that, without canting, interactions between the fins, boundary layers, and combustion fronts are insufficient to unstart the projectile at superdetonative velocities. With canting, the projectile will unstart at flow conditions where it appears to accelerate without canting. Unstart occurs at some critical canting angle. It is also found that three-dimensionality plays an important role in the overall combustion process.

Soetrisno, Moeljo↗
NASA NTRS1995

NASA Advanced Refrigerator/Freezer Technology Development Project Overview

NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) has recently initiated a three-year project to develop the advanced refrigerator/freezer (R/F) technologies needed to support future life and biomedical sciences space experiments. Refrigerator/freezer laboratory equipment, most of which needs to be developed, is enabling to about 75 percent of the planned space station life and biomedical science experiments. These experiments will require five different classes of equipment; three storage freezers operating at -20 C, -70 C and less than 183 C, a -70 C freeze-dryer, and a cryogenic (less than 183 C) quick/snap freezer. This project is in response to a survey of cooling system technologies, performed by a team of NASA scientists and engineers. The team found that the technologies, required for future R/F systems to support life and biomedical sciences spaceflight experiments, do not exist at an adequate state of development and concluded that a program to develop the advanced R/F technologies is needed. Limitations on spaceflight system size, mass, and power consumption present a significant challenge in developing these systems. This paper presents some background and a description of the Advanced R/F Technology Development Project, project approach and schedule, general description of the R/F systems, and a review of the major R/F equipment requirements.

Cairelli, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Water in the deep atmosphere of Venus from high-resolution spectra of the night side

High-resolution, near-infrared (1.09 to 2.5 micrometers) spectra of the night side of Venus have been obtained in 1990 and 1991 using the Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. Absorptions due to H2O were detected in spectral windows near 2.3, 1.74, and 1.18 micrometers. Our analysis of these absorptions constrains the abundance of water vapor in three different altitude ranges located between the clouds and the surface: 30-40 km, 15-25 km and 0-15 km. A constant water vapor mixing ratio of 30 +/- 15 ppm below the clouds can fit the observations. These values are consistent with recent near-infrared studies of the night side of Venus at lower spectral resolution. The atmosphere of Venus appears to be dryer than originally suggested by the in-situ measurements made by the Pioneer Venus and Venera mass-spectrometers and gas-chromatographs.

De Bergh, C.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Studies of droplet burning and extinction

A project on droplet combustion, pursued jointly with F. L. Dryer of Princeton University, has now been in progress for many years. The project involves experiments on the burning of single droplets in various atmospheres, mainly at normal atmospheric pressure and below, performed in drop towers and designed to be performed aboard space-based platforms such as the Space Shuttle or the Space Station and currently manifest for Spacelab in the MSL-1 flight of the Space Shuttle in April of 1997. It also involves numerical computations on droplet burning, performed mainly at Princeton, and asymptotic analyses of droplet burning, performed mainly at UCSD. The focus of the studies rests primarily on time-dependent droplet-burning characteristics and on extinction phenomena. The presentation to be given here concerns the recent research on application of asymptotic methods to investigation of the flame structure and extinction of alcohol droplets. These theoretical studies are relevant to the second of the proposed space-flight tests and are currently investigating the extent to which combustion of alcohols can be described by four-step reduced chemistry similar to that which has achieved a good degree of success for alkane flames. These studies have progressed to a point at which a number of definite conclusions can now be stated. These conclusions and the reasoning that led to them are outlined.

Williams, F. A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Automated Simplification of Full Chemical Mechanisms

A code has been developed to automatically simplify full chemical mechanisms. The method employed is based on the Intrinsic Low Dimensional Manifold (ILDM) method of Maas and Pope. The ILDM method is a dynamical systems approach to the simplification of large chemical kinetic mechanisms. By identifying low-dimensional attracting manifolds, the method allows complex full mechanisms to be parameterized by just a few variables; in effect, generating reduced chemical mechanisms by an automatic procedure. These resulting mechanisms however, still retain all the species used in the full mechanism. Full and skeletal mechanisms for various fuels are simplified to a two dimensional manifold, and the resulting mechanisms are found to compare well with the full mechanisms, and show significant improvement over global one step mechanisms, such as those by Westbrook and Dryer. In addition, by using an ILDM reaction mechanism in a CID code, a considerable improvement in turn-around time can be achieved.

Norris, A. T.↗
NASA NTRS2000

A Preview of AMSR: Airborne C-band Microwave Radiometer (ACMR) Observations from SGP99

Although L-band is generally considered ideal for passive microwave sensing of soil moisture, near-future satellite observing systems such as Advanced Mechanically Scanned Radiometer (AMSR) will provide C-band data for several years before any L-band data might become available. The Southern Great Plains'99 (SGP99) Experiment was designed to generate C-band observations suitable for testing and refinement of AMSR-era soil moisture retrieval algorithms. C-band data collected using the Airborne C-band Microwave Radiometer (ACMR), a new high-accuracy NASA/GSFC instrument, clearly demonstrated a strong response to a 9-day drydown event as well as to differences between the northern (cooler & wetter) and southern (warmer & dryer) areas covered by the P-3 flights. For example, the H-polarized brightness temperatures observed during the first three days of the drydown increased up to 50 K in the northern areas. These observations represent a preview of what we can expect from AMSR, albeit at 3-km spatial resolution vs. approximately 60 km for AMSR. Initial results of soil-vegetation microwave modeling will also be presented to estimate the relative contributions of soil physical temperature, canopy physical temperature, soil moisture, and canopy moisture. Significant radio-frequency interference (RFI) was evident during the experiment, and amelioration strategies will be discussed. The net effect of RFI (an upward bias in brightnesses) when averaged over an AMSR footprint is expected to be more subtle.

Kim, Edward↗
NASA NTRS2000

Numerical Modeling of Drying Residual RP-1 in Rocket Engines

When a Rocket Engine shuts down under a fuel rich environment, a significant amount of unburned RP-1 is trapped In the engine. It is necessary to clean the residual RP-1 prior to subsequent firing to avoid any explosion due to detonation. The conventional method is to dry RP-1 with inert gas such as Nitrogen or Helium. It is difficult to estimate the drying time unless the engine is adequately equipped with instruments to measure the trace of RP-1 during the drying process. Such instrumentation in flight hardware is often impractical and costly. On the other hand numerical modeling of the drying process can provide a good insight for a satisfactory operation of the process. A numerical model can provide answer to questions such as a) how long it takes to dry, b) which fluid is a better dryer for RP-1, c) how to reduce drying time etc. The purpose of the present paper is to describe a numerical model of drying RP-1 trapped in a cavity with flowing nitrogen or helium. The numerical model assumes one dimensional flow of drying fluid in contact with liquid pool of RP-1. An evaporative mass transfer takes place across the contact surface.

Majumdar, Alok↗
NASA NTRS2000

Thermal and Evolved Gas Analysis of Hydromagnesite and Nesquehonite: Implications for Remote Thermal Analysis on Mars

Volatile-bearing minerals (e.g., Fe-oxyhydroxides, phyllosilicates, carbonates, and sulfates) may be important phases on the surface of Mars. In order to characterize these potential phases the Thermal Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), which was onboard the Mars Polar Lander, was to have performed differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and evolved-gas analysis of soil samples collected from the surface. The sample chamber in TEGA operates at about 100 mbar (approximately 76 torr) with a N2, carrier gas flow of 0.4 seem. Essentially, no information exists on the effects of reduced pressure on the thermal properties of volatile-bearing minerals. In support of TEGA, we have constructed a laboratory analog for TEGA from commercial instrumentation. We connected together a commercial differential scanning calorimeter, a quadruple mass spectrometer, a vacuum pump, digital pressure gauge, electronic mass flow meter, gas "K" bottles, gas dryers, and high and low pressure regulators using a collection of shut off and needle valves. Our arrangement allows us to vary and control the pressure and carrier gas flow rate inside the calorimeter oven chamber.

Lauer, H. V., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Droplet Combustion in a Slow Convective Flow

The objective of the present flight experiment definition study is to investigate the effects of slow forced convective flows on the dynamics of isolated single droplet combustion and is designed to complement the quiescent, microgravity droplet combustion experiments (DCE-1 and DCE-2) of Williams and Dryer. The fuels selected for this study are the same as those of DCE, namely, a sooting alkane fuel (heptane) and a non-sooting alcohol (methanol), and imposed flow rates are chosen between 0 and 20 cm/s with varying ambient oxygen concentrations and pressures. Within this velocity range, both accelerating and decelerating flow effects will also be investigated. Two different approaches to generate the forced flow are currently under development in ground-based facilities; the first is a flow tunnel concept where the forced flow is imposed against a stationary droplet, and in the second a tethered droplet is translated at a specified velocity in a quiescent ambient medium. Depending upon the engineering feasibility a selection will be made between these two approaches so that the experiment can be accommodated in the Multiple Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) currently being designed for the International Space Station. Recently, we have finished designing and fabricating the experimental rigs using both the above mentioned concepts. The flow tunnel concept is implemented in a 2.2 second drop tower rig. Preliminary experiments have been carried out using heptane and methanol in air at atmospheric pressure. The translating droplet apparatus is scheduled to be tested in the 5 second drop facility in the near future. This report presents some of the experimental results obtained for heptane.

Nayagam, V.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Practical Considerations of Waste Heat Reuse for a Mars Mission Advanced Life Support System

Energy conservation is a key issue in design optimization of Advanced Life Support Systems (ALSS) for long-term space missions. By considering designs for conservation at the system level, energy saving opportunities arise that would otherwise go unnoticed. This paper builds on a steady-state investigation of system-level waste heat reuse in an ALSS with a low degree of crop growth for a Mars mission. In past studies, such a system has been defined in terms of technology types, hot and cold stream identification and stream energy content. The maximum steady-state potential for power and cooling savings within the system was computed via the Pinch Method. In this paper, several practical issues are considered for achieving a pragmatic estimate of total system savings in terms of equivalent system mass (ESM), rather than savings solely in terms of power and cooling. In this paper, more realistic ESM savings are computed by considering heat transfer inefficiencies during material transfer. An estimate of the steady-state mass, volume and crewtime requirements associated with heat exchange equipment is made by considering heat exchange equipment material type and configuration, stream flow characteristics and associated energy losses during the heat exchange process. Also, previously estimated power and cooling savings are adjusted to reflect the impact of such energy losses. This paper goes one step further than the traditional Pinch Method of considering waste heat reuse in heat exchangers to include ESM savings that occur with direct reuse of a stream. For example, rather than exchanging heat between crop growth lamp cooling air and air going to a clothes dryer, air used to cool crop lamps might be reused directly for clothes drying purposes. When thermodynamically feasible, such an approach may increase ESM savings by minimizing the mass, volume and crewtime requirements associated with stream routing equipment.

Levri, Julie↗
NASA NTRS2001

On Quality Control Procedures Being Adopted for TRMM LBA and KWAJEX Soundings Data Sets

During NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) field campaigns Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere (LBA) held in Amazonia (Brazil) in the period January- February, 1999, and the Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX) held in the Republic of Marshall Islands in the period between August-September, 1999, extensive radiosonde observations (raob) were collected using VIZ and Vaisala sondes which have different response characteristics. In all, 320 raob for LBA and 972 fixed raob for KWAJEX have been obtained and are being processed. Most atmospheric sensible heat source (Q1) and apparent moisture sink (Q2) budget studies are based on sounding data, and the accuracy of the raob is important especially in regions of deep moist convection. A data quality control (QC) project has been initiated at GSFC by the principal investigator (JBH), and this paper addresses some of the quantitative findings for the level I and II QC procedures. Based on these quantitative assessment of sensor (or system) biases associated with each type of sonde, the initial data repair work will be started. Evidence of moisture biases between the two different sondes (VIZ and Vaisala) has been shown earlier by Halverson et al. (2000). Vaisala humidity sensors are found to have a low-level dry bias in the boundary layer, whereas above 600 mb the VIZ sensor tends to register a dryer atmosphere. All raob data were subjected to a limit check based on an algorithm already well tested for the raob data obtained during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA-COARE).

Roy, B.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Noise Abatement

SMART, Sound Modification and Regulated Temperature compound, is a liquid plastic mixture with exceptional energy and sound absorbing qualities. It is derived from a very elastic plastic which was an effective noise abatement material in the Apollo Guidance System. Discovered by a NASA employee, it is marketed by Environmental Health Systems, Inc. (EHS). The product has been successfully employed by a diaper company with noisy dryers and a sugar company with noisy blowers. The company also manufactures an audiometric test booth and acoustical office partitions.

Source record↗